


Dead men are heavier than broken hearts

by orphan_account



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Detectives!, F/M, Revo Redux
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-02
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-17 21:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1403041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'I'm looking for a blonde. A specific blonde. I didn't just wake up with a craving.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for revo redux to fill the prompt: DETECTIVE AU. I'm looking for a blonde. A specific blonde. I didn't just wake up with a craving.
> 
> Title taken from Raymond Chandler.

Bass Monroe had been looking for Charlotte Matheson for months. She had an unnatural talent for disappearing. No way she could pull some of those vanishing acts by herself. Miles had to be helping her.

He had been criss-crossing the country two steps behind them for quite some time. Each time he thought he was close to enough to pin her down, to pin him down, she'd up and leave and he'd spend weeks chasing cold trails and dead ends before finally getting a break, finding a clue and catching up to her.

Tonight he was sitting in his rental car in another shitty east coast sleeper town, collar pulled up against the cold and fingers held out to the car heater which was letting out a thin stream of tepid air. Sleet was falling and the wind was howling a gale. Miles really picked great places to go into hiding. He had a real knack for it. 

He started the car and drove to the parking attendant, handing over a ticket and five dollar note.  
Pulling out another folded bill he beckoned the attendant back to the window.

'Hey?'

'You need directions man?'

'I'm looking for a blonde.'

The parking attendant shook his head 'Try up on the corner man.'

'I'm looking for a specific blonde. I didn't just wake up with a craving.' He waved the folded twenty.

The guy lent down and put his gloved hands on the window.

'She's about twenty-two. Lean build, would come up to your shoulder. Long wavy dark blonde hair. Blue, I mean really blue eyes. New in town.'

The parking attendant shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. People were such open books.

'Why are you looking for her?'

'Tell her I got a message for her, if you see her again.'

He flipped out his business card. Watched as the attendant mouthed the name there. Detective Sebastian Monroe. It was an old card but this guy would never know. Bass flipped the twenty over too. No more waiting, no more chasing.

'Let me know if you see her.'

He pulled out. Headlights picking out snowflakes as he drove down the street.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie had been working as a housemaid at the Plaza International for about two weeks. It wasn't so bad. The work was easy and there were plenty of people to talk to. Charlie wasn't exactly shy but she had sort of fallen out of the habit of talking to people over the last twelve months. Ever since her Uncle Miles had turned up on her door, bleeding and sick and telling some garbled story about not being safe any more and needing some place to hide, someone to trust. Hell, she hadn't even believed him at first and had started to call the cops. But he'd freaked out so much she'd stopped and listened. She hadn't seen Uncle Miles since she was four but she sort of remembered him. He knew things about her and her family that no one else would know right? Plus he looked like grandpa. A lot like grandpa. So she'd let him in. Blood was thicker than water.

It had been a long year since. A lot had happened. Life had kind of spiralled out of control. At first she thought Miles was just a paranoid drunk, or just not okay... emotionally. She often heard his nightmares, full of blame and worry that he hadn't done enough. More than once she heard him cry out 'I should have stopped him. I'm sorry.' He read the newspaper and watched news on tv obsessively. He would never tell her anything more about it. After a couple of months she had the pip with it and decided to tell him, either you tell me what is going on or you leave. But then she'd walked into her lounge where Miles usually slept on the couch and saw him glued to the tv news.

'A third member of the city's elite detective force has been found dead.' The anchor intoned. 'Detective Jeremy Baker's body was found last night, he had been missing for two months. Two other members of the squad, Detectives William Strasser and James Hudson were found late last year murdered. Detective Miles Matheson has been missing since that time. Only two remaining members of this elite team remain, Detective Inspector Tom Neville and Detective Sebastian Monroe. The bureau has released a statement saying it will investigate all leads.'

Miles had stared at the tv for along time and then turned bleak eyes towards her. Charlie had turned around and gone downstairs to the convenience store and bought a bottle of whisky. She brought it straight back and poured each of them an enormous glass full. They sat down on either side of her warped kitchen table and drank.

'No one can ever know I am here Charlie.'

And she believed him. But that was all he ever said about it.

 

The had moved town four times since then. New towns, new identity, new job. More times than she could count she wanted to kick him out. Scream at him for drawing her into his paranoid delusions. He told her it was risky. Would someone be looking for her too now then? Anyway for now she believed him. Sort of. If only he would explain what had happened, tell her something more. Sometimes at night her mind raced, what if he was the problem? What if he.... she couldn't bear to think about it. She was just starting to get suspicious like him. It was catching. 

 

So fourth new town, fourth new job. She liked it here. Maybe Miles would feel safer here. Maybe Miles would get some help. 

'Hey, new girl?' The shout pulled her out of her dream as she walked up to the staff entrance of the hotel to start her shift. One of the guys who worked in the parking station was waving her over.

'Hey.'

'Guy was looking for you earlier.' He was patting down his pockets and finally pulled out a card from his coat and handed it over.

'Detective Sebastian Monroe' she read aloud slowly.

'Yeah, you know him?'

'No'

'I didn't tell him anything. You in trouble girl?'

'No... you know, just wondering what it could be about.'

She forced herself to smile up at him and he relaxed. She waved the card with unconcern and turned and walked to work.

'I'm sure its nothing.' She said over her back as she walked through the door.

'Shit.' She leaned up against the stairwell and rubbed her eyes. Fifth town, fifth job. Here we go.

 

Charlotte decided to skip work. What was the point now anyway? The minute Miles heard about Sebastian Monroe he would insist they leave. Straight away. She was sitting on a coffee in a diner now, waiting on a plate of eggs. Putting off going home and dealing with Miles.

Somone slipped onto to the stool next to her. She looked across. Good looking man. Just her luck, she half laughed to herself, to sit next to such a good looking man just before she left town. Damn, who knows he could have been her soul mate, the one, Mr Right. It had been a while, even just Mr This Afternoon would have done. God, stop Charlie, stop, she told herself. She was going mad just like her uncle.

He smiled at her and she found herself looking at his mouth.

'Charlotte.' She jumped back.

'I'm a friend of your uncles'.'

'I'm...I mean, I think you have the wrong person.'

'Miles Matheson. He's with you right?'

'Look, mister...'

'Charlotte, Miles is in trouble. He's involved in something that's not good for him and not good for you. I am not the enemy. I need to know where he is.'

'Leave it mister, go try your crazy somewhere else and scram before I call the cops.' He looked over at her. Blue, blue eyes. She shivered involuntarily and squashed the flicker of interest her body was trying to communicate. Too late. He'd seen it. He registered it. 

'Charlotte, I need to talk to him. I'm his oldest friend. The stuff he's been mixed up in...I can help.'

She looked into his eyes. She was so sick of not knowing what was going on that she was tempted. Maybe it would help. She and Miles, well it had started to feel like they were going round in circles.

She shook her head, refusing to get drawn into the conversation any further.

He picked up his coat and slid off the stool. Started towards the door.

'I'll see you soon.'

'What did he do anyway, this guy you're looking for? She regretted the words even as they left her mouth. Stupid, stupid.

'Huh.' he stopped by the door. 'He doesn't tell you anything either hey kid?

The door jangled as it shut behind him.

She pulled her plate of eggs towards her, appetite gone.


	3. Chapter 3

All the way home she could feel his eyes on her. She walked around aimlessly for a while. Chewing on her bottom lip. Trying to appear casual as she peered in shop windows.

She felt stuck. She knew he was somewhere close by. She could feel his eyes on her. He would follow her straight to Miles and what could she do about it? Nothing. Charlie wasn’t even really sure she wanted to do anything about it. They needed help and Sebastian Monroe might not be the kind of help Miles would choose but he was the only one offering. And they couldn’t go on like this.

She stopped abruptly in the street and stood still, waited. A minute later he slouched across the road to meet her shoulders up against the wind.

‘Thanks, Charlotte.’

‘Listen, I don’t know what to think, who to trust anymore.’ The wind gusted against her back and she stepped closer to him.

‘I get that. I am not his enemy.’ Bass let her look right at him and they stared on and on while Charlie made up her mind.

‘It’s up the block on the corner. Let’s go before we freeze.’

 

The look on Miles’ face when Sebastian Monroe followed her inside stole her breath. Charlie saw hope at first and then relief and briefly terror before Miles settled his face back into the blankness she found so worrying. She breathed in deeply and unwound her scarf, peeled off her shoes and tights. Both men watching each other warily. She went into her room and pulled on her jeans behind the door before shrugging out of her uniform and into a grey hoodie.

‘Jesus Christ, Charlie. What have you done?’ Miles called out.

‘I don’t know Miles….’ She answered from behind her door.

‘How long have you been talking to him, what has he said to you’ Miles interrupted her. He pushed open the door and grabbed her by the arm while she hopped on one foot try to get her stripey socks on.

‘Hey, hold up Miles.’ Bass hurried over and put a hand out covering both Miles' hand and Charlie's arm with his long fingers. He noticed the frantic jitter of Miles hand and Charlie saw sympathy rise in Bass' eyes.

‘I only met Charlie this afternoon. She hasn’t said anything to me. She’s looking out for you. I’m looking out for you.’ Miles flinched.

‘I know you didn’t do this, Miles. Not any of it. I know. And you have to know it wasn't me.' 

‘How can you know that Bass? Every single piece of evidence was pointing my way or your way. Everything I tried to get to the truth only seemed to dig a bigger hole.’

He walked to the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of whisky. Halfway empty. Charlie wondered how much he had already had to drink.

‘So you just … left?’ Bass asked quietly. 

Miles pacing on the other side of the sofa didn’t hear. Charlie heard though and she sat herself down on the arm of the armchair and watched him. He was looking down at his coat rolling a button around his thumb and fingers. Miles continued to think out loud as he paced.

‘And if not me then who? You? Neville? It’s a fucking farce. Someone was killing everybody on our team and I couldn’t find any way to stop it from happening. As far as I know it could have been you. Everything fitted. It could have been you.’ Miles slugged back a huge swallow of whisky and sat down on the sofa. He looked so tired and worn.

Bass shrugged out of his coat and sat down on the other arm of Charlie's chair.

‘Yeah and it could have been you.’

‘It wasn’t me.’

‘I know that, idiot. Why do you think I’m here? Did you really think it was me then?’

‘I don’t know. No. Not really. No.’

The room fell silent. They were a long way from trust.

‘Why are you here?’ Charlie asked suddenly.

‘Because when the only part of your family you have left is in trouble you want to help them. When the only other person in the world who remembers your mom or your baby sisters, the person who stole penthouses and cigarettes from your dads bedside drawer with you, the person you trusted through the marines, through a hundred bar fights, thousands of hours working as cops together…. through everything of any importance in your life… when that person needs you, when that person disappears. You find them. You help them.’

Charlie was a sucker for a man with that kind of loyalty.

‘Miles. Please? Let’s at least try.’ A long spell of quiet in the room and Charlie just watched and waited.

‘What choice have you left me Charlie?’ Mile asked around a mouthful of his drink.

‘None. But I don’t remember asking for this to happen to my life. I never did Miles. You can’t just stand back over there and call the shots anymore.’ Bass snorted at this and then tried to pretend he had coughed when Charlie turned and narrowed her eyes at him.

‘So I say the three of us stay together until we sort it out. We can investigate together.’ She caught the almost amused look Miles and Bass shared at this. ‘Whatever.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘We’re not far from your old office downtown Miles. You must have been thinking of trying to get to the bottom of this when you moved us back here?’

Miles nodded briefly.

‘Okay then. Have you got any money?’ Charlie turned to Bass. ‘We are so broke. Miles is a shit provider and I can’t go back to working at the hotel now anyway.’

‘Um, I have some I guess. Not a lot.’ He admitted.

Miles scoffed. ‘Surely Bass with you being the only detective left up at the precinct you will have managed a pay rise out of Neville by now.’

‘Well, it’s just that I don’t actually work there anymore.’

They both gaped at him and he had the decency to colour slightly.

‘What are you talking about? I saw your card. It said Detective.’ Charlie stood up and glared down at him.

‘It was an old card Charlie.’ He shrugged.

‘You don’t work for the police anymore? Are you kidding me? Why did you let me think you worked for the police… shit… you could have just... shit..’ She stood up and grabbed his coat and then his hand pulling him to his feet and started to push him towards the door. It was like trying to move a very heavy chest of drawers around a tight hallway corner. She didn’t get far.

‘Okay, okay I’m sorry Charlie.’ Bass was trying not to laugh. ‘I should have said.’

‘This is how you try to get us to trust you?’ she poked him hard in the chest and when he stepped back a bit she did it again poking hard until he was backed up against the front door and Miles looked like he was holding back a smile.

‘Did you quit?’ Miles asked.

‘No, I was fired. Questions about my “methods”.’ 

Miles harrumphed and stood, rolling his shoulders back, waggling his head side to side and cracking his neck.

‘Same old Bass’ he sighed

‘This is how you get us to trust you?’ Charlie asked again.

‘No. I think I trust him better for it.’ Miles looked over to where they were standing and frowned all of a sudden. Bass lounged against the front door and Charlie faced into him. So close. Bass hands were inching towards her hips and he had to press them into his pockets to stop himself from reaching out to grasp her and pull her into the v of his legs.

Miles was glowering at him from the sofa.

Bass smiled and took Charlie’s hand and pressed it over where she had been prodding him. The dip in the middle of his chest. She could feel his heart thumping reassuringly steady and even. 

‘Remember… I am not the enemy.’

‘We’ll see.’ She pulled her hand away. ‘You can sleep on the sofa.’


	4. Chapter 4

Charlie drifted in the kitchen where Miles and Bass sat sorting information and scraps of paper. A pot of coffee sat by the stove, Charlie helped herself to the last half cup and slid into the seat next to Miles. It was new, the seat, another new thing they had added to their small household since Bass had moved in. He had come back after that first day with a small bag and made the sofa his own. A new towel in the bathroom, a few new plates and bowls and mugs at the kitchen sink. A lot more food in the refrigerator. Bass was always hungry. Blankets and a pillow folded and placed on his bag each morning.

The walls of the kitchen were papered with sheets of yellow legal pad paper. Each briefly outlining the known facts in each murder. They had agreed to keep all this stuff, the files, the papers, the coroners reports and folders in the kitchen but it made for some grizzly breakfast reading. Charlie was getting used to it, sure. But she understood now why Miles had been so freaked when he had ended up on her door a year ago. 

The kitchen door held a timeline of all the events that had played out over the last couple of years Bass and Miles thought might be relevant. These were fiercely debated between them and the four sheets of taped together legal paper were worn and ripped from the many crossing outs and additions they had made to it.

On the table was a pile of newspaper cuttings and articles that Miles had meticulously kept from the last year. Well thumbed over and smudged by many readings they were weighted down now by a chipped coffee mug that held a couple of ball point pens and a stash of rubber bands.

Four of the kitchen cabinets had small summaries written in Miles’ angular handwriting taped up to them. The first one said 1) Straesser, found East. River. Missing 4 weeks. Stab wounds. Mutilated. Jaw smashed - post mortem. Going home from work. Various other details had been added to it and to the others but they all looked remarkably alike. 2) Hudson. Missing 10 days. Stab wounds all over his body. Found in swimming pool at in – laws country place closed for winter. Jaw smashed – post mortem. 3) Jeremy. This one had given Miles the hardest few moments. Miles had not known much about the Baker case and Bass had brought new information. Miles had written it all down and then pored over that night in the kitchen, motioning Bass and Charlie away so he could concentrate.

The fourth piece of paper had all the cases they could remember working on at the time. A map of arrows and scrawls connecting as many dots as possible. Who had worked which case and with whom. Their first real argument had come when Bass had urged Miles to ignore any information that seemed to point the finger at him or Miles. Difficult because there was a worrying amount of it.

‘Bass we have to look at everything.’ Miles insisted.

‘This stuff is just muddying the picture. Take it all away and see what we are left with. It wasn’t us.’ Bass replied.

That morning though, all was quiet in the kitchen when Charlie got up. They were simply reading and re reading through everything they had been through a hundred times before. Miles got up and murmured about taking a shower. Bass cleared his throat to talk to her.

‘Tonight Charlie?’ he passed her the milk from the fridge and watched as she reached high on the shelf for a cereal bowl. Her tshirt rode halfway up her back and he eyed the skin she was showing.

She whipped around and looked at him.

‘What about tonight?’

‘Miles’ birthday.’

‘Seriously? I had no idea. He’s not going to want to, you know, do anything. He barely goes out as it is.’

‘Let’s persuade him. We are going to go crazy cooped up in here all the time. There’s a bar down the block. We can just go out for a few. Do him good.’

‘Well if you can…’ she said doubtfully... ‘it would be great to go out.’

‘I’ll talk to him later.’

She smiled. Happy. These days she made her coffee with extra grounds and filled her cup all the way to the top. These days she spread her toast with a generous knife of butter and then lavished jelly all over it, right to the corners. When no one was looking she sometimes did a little jump of joy. She caught herself humming along to the radio at the laundromat. The year of being cut adrift was gone. Bass arriving in their lives had been a rope to hold on to. It was good.

 

Later that evening they walked into the bar Bass had told them about. It was small, just a long narrow room, with a few tables, chairs and barstools and some booths along the back wall. Busy enough for this part of town and Miles and Charlie slid onto the last two seats at the bar. Bass stood behind Charlie and ordered a round. It was a happy post work crowd. Noisy but not wild, and the tension lifted from all of them as the first drinks went down.

‘This was a good idea Bass, thanks.’

‘Happy birthday man. You gonna share some of your old man wisdom with us or do I have tell Charlie embarrassing birthday stories from yesteryear?’

‘Any embarrassing stories you tell about me will only incriminate yourself Bass.’ Miles laughed back at him and clinked his glass to theirs.

‘Yep, true.’ Bass looked up as the lights flickered. The noise in the room surged as the small crowd gave an excited growl. The bartender started walking around the room distributing candles and beer bottles to jam them into.

‘Just in case.’ He said as he slid a couple of candles towards them. ‘We’ve lost power three times this week already. This city is a mess.’ 

A few new people spilled into the bar from the street as the light flickered again and the bartender moved to serve them. Charlie could feel Miles tensing and she leaned over and grabbed his knee.

‘It’s ok Miles, it’s just a little power outage. Happens all the time.’ 

A few drinks later they were all feeling brighter. Charlie was giddy with the pleasure of being out. Not closed in their little apartment watching Miles go through evidence, watching Bass watching him carefully. Tonight they were laughing. Even Miles. Talking to them both with an ease she had never seen.

Over her head Bass ordered another round and pushed some money onto the bar to pay. The growing crowd jostled him a little closer and he found himself tight up against her back with a mouthful of her hair as he scooped up his change. He stepped back a little but left one hand on the small of her back. She twisted her neck to look back at him and smiled as he pushed her hair across her far shoulder to avoid getting another mouthful of strands when the crowd pushed him ever closer.

Miles relaxed again and returned to is story. When the lights flickered again and finally went black the crowd was good natured enough, happily passing around matches and lighters to light the candles, the new light casting shadows around the bar.

‘Everyone looks beautiful in candlelight.’ Someone called from the back of the room and a small cheer went round.

‘You might get lucky tonight after all.’ Someone catcalled back, making everyone laugh.

In the new darkness Bass began rubbing small circles on Charlie’s back. First his thumb traced a small circle and then his fingers chased it all the way around. Over and over. Charlie had the strange thought that maybe he was hypnotising her. Hairs on her arms stood up. Her breathing shallowed. She started to take little puffing breaths of air in and she told herself to calm. She bit into her bottom lip and it plumped and pinked under her teeth. She heard Bass' breath hitch at that and the regular turn of his thumb on her back faltered briefly. He looked down at her from where he was standing, hard against her side. Eyes all over her.

Later when Miles said it was time to go Charlie almost shot out the door. They walked home so quickly that Miles grumbled about not being able to keep up and when he picked up the evidence files and laptop from the kitchen along with a huge glass of whisky neither Bass or Charlie tried to persuade him to take the night off. They knew once he went to his room they would not see him again till morning. Bass watched him close the door and stood staring at it for a moment.

He turned and they both walked into Charlie's bedroom. Bass shut the door behind them and Charlie flicked on the small light by the bed. She toed out of her shoes and faced him and started to wriggle the arms of her dress down over her shoulders until it pooled around her hips.

'I want to kiss every inch of your neck.' He said and moved close to her, lifted her hair away from her shoulders and pressed his mouth to the small hollow at the base of her throat. She stood on tip toe to kiss him, brushed her lips against his twice before leaning forward and resting her forehead against him to push the dress over her hips and drop it to the floor.

Charlie reached behind her to unhook her bra and let that fall to the side. Heard him take a deep shaky breath in and felt his hands on her hips. He dropped to his knees in front of her and tongued a hot wet stripe from hip to hip. Murmured 'Charlotte Matheson' into her skin. Slipped a hand between her legs and hooked a finger into her knickers, helping her wriggle them down and off.

Bass rose to his feet, keeping his body in contact with hers, inching his way up, touching as much of her as possible. Still fully dressed so the leg he pressed betweens hers was rough with denim, still cold from the outside and now pressed firmly against the hot, hopelessly excited, swollen centre of her.

'You're in charge.' She said quietly into his mouth.

'I know.' He smiled against her and kissed her. Finally.


End file.
